Joan and Amy and I left the Arboretum this morning bound for plant collecting in Tennessee and Alabama; signs were mixed. The van wouldn't start out of the parking lot and a quick look suggested it still had its original battery which would be about 9 years old. We jump started it and stopped a few hours later to buy a battery. Good plan, it turns out. It took less than a half hour to buy the battery and have it installed. Traffic was great, the weather was fine and we got to Chattanooga by 8:00.
With three drivers, four if you count Joan twice, there's plenty of down time on a long drive so I amused myself with The Roadside Geology of Virginia, one of a cool series of guides that describe and explain local geology in terms of what's visible from a moving vehicle. I have a few of these guides and highly recommend them; with more lead time, possibly I could have covered the area south of Virginia, but hey, its sort of more of the same! Paleozoic sedimentary sequences including lots of Limestone, and the odd exposure of Grenville (pre-Cambrian) metamorphics.
These are old mountains trending NE/SW folded, refolded, peneplained and reeneplained, intruded multiple times. They are complicated but scenic. Three orogenies not to be confused with erogenous. I will have to bring back a rock, but the choice will likely be difficult.
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